1. Field of the Invention
The invention belongs to the technical domain of fiber bundle optical cables, that is to say light wave guides constituted by the juxtaposition of several optical fibers generally, but not exclusively, of glass) forming a bundle which is itself surrounded by an outer protector sheath formed of a thermoplastic material, and it relates to processes for preparing, for their connection, ends of optical cables of the aforesaid type, by equipping them with connector tips and/or by cutting these ends and by polishing the front surface thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fiber bundle optical cables are already known which are provided with a metallic connector tip. The end of the cable is stripped of its outer sheath and the tip fixed on the cable surrounds, on the one hand, the zone of the cable stripped of its outer sheath, and, on the other hand, a zone of the cable provided with its outer sheath and adjacent to the abovesaid zone of the cable stripped of its outer sheath.
The fixing of such a metallic tip on the end of the cable necessitates, after removal of an end portion of the outer protector sheath, the amalgamation of the denuded ends of the optical fibres by means of a suitable polymerisable resin, the glueing of the outer sheath to its portion intended to penetrate into the tip and, after positioning of the tip, the polymerisation of the resin.
Now the special resins used for this purpose have a rather long polymerisation time, which can amount to several hours, which unfavourably influences the rates of production of optical cables equipped with tips.
In addition, once the polymerisation of the resin has been effected, it is necessary to proceed with rectification of the end of the optical cable, by sawing if the length of the fibers extending beyond the tip is too great, followed by polishing the front surface of the cable by means of abrasives with very fine granulometry in order that the front surface of the bundle may be flat and perfectly polished.
Here again long and delicate operations are involved, which can only be carried out after complete polymerisation of the resin (effected too soon, these operations would risk displacing the fibers with respect to one another).
It has also been attempted to crimp the tip on the end of an optical cable: the essential drawback of this process is that of exerting stress on the fibers, which sometimes can even break.
It is an object of the invention to overcome the drawbacks of known processes.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will emerge from the description which follows.